Controversy over US flu vacc stock destruction

An Associated Press report has opened a controversy in the USA over the practice of routinely destroying the previous season's influenza vaccine stocks, before a June 30 deadline imposed by the Food and Drug Administration, without a new supply being guaranteed. Among the losers from the practice are vaccine manufacturers and a number of proposals have been discussed, including the problem of child vaccination, which can require two doses.

The Wall Street Journal also reported that Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, the US drug major, had ceased production of flu vaccine, after having to destroy about a third of its 2002-2003 stock of 20 million doses, for a $35.0 million loss. The following year, licensing problems at a UK site for Chiron (now a US subsidiary of Swiss giant Novartis) caused major US flu vaccine shortages (Marketletter October 11, 2004).